The president of UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, assured this Wednesday, shortly after being re-elected for a third term, that he supports the joint candidacy of Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Ukraine to organize the 2030 Soccer World Cup.
“I consider the candidacy of a UEFA member to be our candidacy, and I think it makes sense to join Morocco, which is very close to Portugal and Spain,” Ceferin said, at the press conference after the organization’s 47th Congress. admitting some apprehension at the beginning of the process.
The Slovenian acknowledged that he was “reluctant” with the inclusion of Morocco, before learning that “there was only one candidacy from Europe”, and added: “If there were more European proposals, I would no longer support”.
Aleksander Ceferin, who was speaking at the end of the 47th UEFA Congress, which took place in Lisbon, guaranteed that he is not surprised that the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, has kept Ukraine in the Ibero-Moroccan candidacy project, in the speech opening.
“I wasn’t surprised, I don’t understand Portuguese, but they told me the translation was correct. I was delighted with the speech, because [António Costa] loves football,” said the Slovenian, who became UEFA president in 2016.
Ceferin assured that, in his personal opinion, the exclusion of clubs and national teams from Russia and Belarus “should not be changed until the end of the war.”
“It is not my decision, but my opinion is that until the end of the war it is very difficult for us to change anything,” he said.
The UEFA president considered that the fact that Norwegian Lise Klaveness was not elected to the UEFA Executive Committee, in a vote in which she was the only woman among the 11 candidates, is the result of democracy.
“When there are democratic elections it is difficult to say that there is a missed opportunity. I am sure that Lise is doing a good job and has a bright future in our organization”, she considered.
After admitting that UEFA is “seriously discussing the participation of women” in its bodies, Ceferin recalled that this Wednesday, in Lisbon, the Englishwoman Debbie Hewitt was chosen for one of FIFA’s European vice-presidencies.
The English FA leader became the first woman to beat a man in a FIFA election, beating Northern Ireland’s David Martin in the election for a British FA representative.
At the press conference, Ceferin announced the options for the UEFA vice-presidencies, replacing Fernando Gomes and the Hungarian Sandor Csányi, the cases of the Italian Gabriele Gravina and the Welsh Laura McAllister, who becomes the first woman to hold this position .
In this Wednesday’s congress, in addition to the various elective processes, the Agency’s Report and Accounts and Budget for 2023/24 were approved.
The next ordinary congress of the body that oversees European football will take place in Madrid on February 8 of next year.
Source: TSF
